WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 Have you heard my cougar joke? No. How do you 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.459 keep a cougar out of your backyard? Install a 00:00:05.459 --> 00:00:09.919 set of goalposts. There it is. There it is. Mitch, 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:16.339 do not put that joke on the podcast. Welcome 00:00:16.339 --> 00:00:18.649 to County Connection. the official podcast of 00:00:18.649 --> 00:00:20.609 the Washington State Association of Counties, 00:00:20.609 --> 00:00:22.989 where we dive into the legislative issues shaping 00:00:22.989 --> 00:00:25.449 the future of our communities. From budgets to 00:00:25.449 --> 00:00:28.390 public safety, infrastructure to elections, we'll 00:00:28.390 --> 00:00:31.030 break down what's happening in Olympia and how 00:00:31.030 --> 00:00:33.009 it impacts counties from across the Evergreen 00:00:33.009 --> 00:00:36.109 State. Stay informed, stay engaged, and join 00:00:36.109 --> 00:00:38.689 us as we amplify the voice of Washington's 39 00:00:38.689 --> 00:00:44.090 counties. Welcome back, everybody, to the County 00:00:44.090 --> 00:00:46.450 Connection podcast, the official podcast for 00:00:46.450 --> 00:00:48.109 the Washington State Association of Counties. 00:00:48.270 --> 00:00:50.689 It's the legislative session. I'm Paul Jewell, 00:00:50.789 --> 00:00:53.810 your government affairs director for WASAC. And 00:00:53.810 --> 00:00:57.429 I'm here in the booth on Friday afternoon. What 00:00:57.429 --> 00:00:59.670 is it? Day five. Day five. Beautiful Friday. 00:00:59.689 --> 00:01:01.829 Yeah, it's a gorgeous Friday afternoon. And we're. 00:01:02.219 --> 00:01:04.659 In the studio. I know. Having a chat. But there's 00:01:04.659 --> 00:01:07.560 a window behind me, behind you. Well, it's actually 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:09.400 behind me. You're the one behind me. I get to 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:10.900 look at it, though. You've got the view. Not 00:01:10.900 --> 00:01:13.540 that I get you and the window. Yeah, I'm sorry 00:01:13.540 --> 00:01:15.200 about that. It's a win -win. It's a win -win. 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:17.500 Yeah, you have to say that because I'm within 00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:20.219 punching distance. You are. You're still in that. 00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:23.760 Well, Brad, you cover public safety and human 00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:26.519 services for us. You haven't been here in the 00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:29.390 studio having a conversation with me since. last 00:01:29.390 --> 00:01:32.189 session yeah it's been a while yeah so you're 00:01:32.189 --> 00:01:35.269 back um do we do these during the interim well 00:01:35.269 --> 00:01:40.989 i do okay yeah i mean i listened to all those 00:01:40.989 --> 00:01:44.129 yeah they were great you remember the one my 00:01:44.129 --> 00:01:48.290 favorite was the one in august thanks brad yeah 00:01:48.290 --> 00:01:50.569 thanks brad yeah i appreciate that um you uh 00:01:50.569 --> 00:01:54.409 obviously added to our listener uh uh list over 00:01:54.409 --> 00:01:57.629 the of course over the interim um no we yeah 00:01:57.629 --> 00:01:59.180 we do them just Just not quite as frequently. 00:01:59.299 --> 00:02:00.939 And we're not always talking about legislative 00:02:00.939 --> 00:02:02.579 stuff. Right. We try to do some other things. 00:02:02.620 --> 00:02:03.959 There's plenty of other county things going on. 00:02:03.959 --> 00:02:06.159 Yeah. Like what's going on in counties and what's 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:07.819 cool in counties. We did a lot of those. And 00:02:07.819 --> 00:02:09.800 there actually are some really interesting ones. 00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:12.719 And we had some cool guest speakers, too. Oh, 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:15.479 really? Yeah. So, you know, if you want to reeducate 00:02:15.479 --> 00:02:17.060 yourself. Yeah, maybe I'll go look through the 00:02:17.060 --> 00:02:19.699 back catalog and see what. Believe it or not, 00:02:19.699 --> 00:02:22.360 there's 50 of them. Whoa. Wow. We really. Yeah. 00:02:22.419 --> 00:02:24.840 We did 50 last year. That's impressive. That's 00:02:24.840 --> 00:02:26.580 crazy. That is crazy. And you think about it. 00:02:26.580 --> 00:02:28.900 Yeah. That's almost one per week. Yeah. Wow. 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:31.020 I know. Pretty rad. I know. I'm excited for that. 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:32.759 Yeah. Good. Well, here we go. It's almost like 00:02:32.759 --> 00:02:34.580 we're old hats at this. I was going to say now 00:02:34.580 --> 00:02:36.539 it's not even novel anymore. The question is, 00:02:36.539 --> 00:02:39.400 is anyone listening? Well, we'll find out. I 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:42.759 guess we will. Say a few interesting things and 00:02:42.759 --> 00:02:44.639 we'll find out. I'm not listening in the summer. 00:02:46.500 --> 00:02:49.939 Clearly not. Clearly. Well, Brad, what are your 00:02:49.939 --> 00:02:51.819 impressions so far? How is the session going? 00:02:52.039 --> 00:02:53.500 You know, it's interesting, right? I mean, you 00:02:53.500 --> 00:02:56.000 never quite know what to expect when you come 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:58.900 into a new session. And I think we knew there 00:02:58.900 --> 00:03:00.780 were going to be budget issues and we knew there 00:03:00.780 --> 00:03:04.520 was going to be a tight time frame. I think we 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:08.349 were – I was kind of excited to see. a new administration 00:03:08.349 --> 00:03:10.770 in their first, I mean, I know last session was 00:03:10.770 --> 00:03:12.990 technically their first, but, you know, Governor 00:03:12.990 --> 00:03:15.250 Ferguson had just been elected, and so they kind 00:03:15.250 --> 00:03:17.189 of walk into it midstream, and it's still a little 00:03:17.189 --> 00:03:19.629 bit of the, you know, Inslee's kind of leftover 00:03:19.629 --> 00:03:22.009 stuff, and he kind of has to inherit, you know 00:03:22.009 --> 00:03:23.550 what I mean? Yeah, well, it was such a big change 00:03:23.550 --> 00:03:26.250 last year, right? I mean, the Senate really shifted. 00:03:26.550 --> 00:03:29.409 It did. A ton of House members went to the Senate, 00:03:29.530 --> 00:03:31.169 so there was a lot of turnover. There were a 00:03:31.169 --> 00:03:33.409 lot of Senate folks, well, several of them ran 00:03:33.409 --> 00:03:35.189 for statewide elected office. That's right. Some 00:03:35.189 --> 00:03:37.569 won, some didn't. Yep. But you had a lot in those 00:03:37.569 --> 00:03:40.449 races. You saw, you know, some of the more seasoned 00:03:40.449 --> 00:03:43.110 veterans, you know, kind of gracefully exit. 00:03:43.210 --> 00:03:45.330 That's right. We had some really sad kind of 00:03:45.330 --> 00:03:48.469 deaths last year that also affected the makeup. 00:03:48.669 --> 00:03:50.789 And then the house had a ton of new members. 00:03:50.990 --> 00:03:54.650 A lot of churn in the house. Yeah. And a lot 00:03:54.650 --> 00:03:57.969 of those members were pretty. eager you know 00:03:57.969 --> 00:03:59.669 last year when they got started unfortunately 00:03:59.669 --> 00:04:01.729 they saw all the building hit kind of a brick 00:04:01.729 --> 00:04:04.449 wall they did it was a hard year to start yeah 00:04:04.449 --> 00:04:06.949 that's a tough year 10 years it's my first year 00:04:06.949 --> 00:04:09.409 as a legislator and oh we're you know we're in 00:04:09.409 --> 00:04:11.330 a major budget right there's no money yeah no 00:04:11.330 --> 00:04:13.129 money so it was a it was a tough year to get 00:04:13.129 --> 00:04:15.830 started and here they're all back yep um but 00:04:15.830 --> 00:04:18.089 it still feels kind of new it does i think well 00:04:18.089 --> 00:04:19.490 you know it's funny i mean a lot of people were 00:04:19.490 --> 00:04:22.600 kind of uh You know, there seemed to be this 00:04:22.600 --> 00:04:24.839 weird reaction, not just in terms of the shift 00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:26.639 in the legislature, which happens, you know, 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:29.120 periodically as we have elections. But I think 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:30.740 the governor's office, people were like, oh, 00:04:30.819 --> 00:04:32.740 so -and -so is leaving this agency. So -and -so 00:04:32.740 --> 00:04:35.259 is going over here. Yeah. And people were acting 00:04:35.259 --> 00:04:37.439 like it was this really kind of dramatic thing. 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:39.819 And I think that's what I was just going to say. 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:42.709 I think people forgot. Right. This is actually 00:04:42.709 --> 00:04:44.529 pretty normal. Yeah. This is what happens. In 00:04:44.529 --> 00:04:45.990 the old days, it was like every four or eight 00:04:45.990 --> 00:04:47.949 years. Exactly. A new administration. Exactly. 00:04:48.050 --> 00:04:50.029 But here it had been 12. 12 years. So I think 00:04:50.029 --> 00:04:52.089 people just forgot that, yeah, this, a lot of, 00:04:52.149 --> 00:04:53.870 you know, oh, so -and -so's, all right, well, 00:04:53.990 --> 00:04:55.870 you know, it's a change of administration. Yeah. 00:04:55.889 --> 00:04:57.269 It's not like, you know. That's normal. Right. 00:04:57.350 --> 00:04:59.029 This is what we should have expected. So, yeah. 00:04:59.110 --> 00:05:01.129 And it also goes to show there were a lot of 00:05:01.129 --> 00:05:03.329 baked -in personalities, right, at that point 00:05:03.329 --> 00:05:05.449 that have been doing these things at agencies 00:05:05.449 --> 00:05:06.870 that we've all been working with for a while. 00:05:06.870 --> 00:05:08.389 For more than a decade. Right. Yeah. So I think 00:05:08.389 --> 00:05:10.560 that was the, maybe some of the discomfort. It's 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:12.699 like, oh, we're. We have a known quantity here, 00:05:12.779 --> 00:05:14.540 and now we've got to try something new. So, yeah, 00:05:14.620 --> 00:05:16.860 I'm excited to kind of see how that continues 00:05:16.860 --> 00:05:19.639 to play out. Definitely there has been a lot 00:05:19.639 --> 00:05:23.399 happening nationally, right? And so I think particularly 00:05:23.399 --> 00:05:25.680 in the public safety kind of human services space. 00:05:25.939 --> 00:05:27.540 Well, you're kind of uniquely positioned, right, 00:05:27.660 --> 00:05:31.519 for that interplay. There really is a lot going 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:34.720 on right now nationally and on the state level 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:36.779 where there's friction being caused. I sat in 00:05:36.779 --> 00:05:40.439 a hearing today in labor, and it was a bill. 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:44.199 that we're supporting wasn't a concern for us. 00:05:44.259 --> 00:05:45.959 We had a couple issues we wanted to talk about, 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:48.839 but it had to do with notifying immigrant workers 00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:52.019 if the employer got notified that there was going 00:05:52.019 --> 00:05:54.180 to be an I -9 audit. Oh, that's right. I remember 00:05:54.180 --> 00:05:56.639 this one. Yeah, we talked about this. And there 00:05:56.639 --> 00:05:58.759 was some really passionate testimony. I'm sure. 00:05:59.139 --> 00:06:01.579 And there was some passionate testimony from 00:06:01.579 --> 00:06:04.959 some employers who basically made the charge, 00:06:05.079 --> 00:06:07.439 hey, you're putting us in the middle of your 00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:10.360 battle between the state government, and the 00:06:10.360 --> 00:06:12.680 federal government, and that's not fair. Now, 00:06:12.839 --> 00:06:14.980 we didn't necessarily see it that way. We didn't 00:06:14.980 --> 00:06:16.420 take that position, but that was some of the 00:06:16.420 --> 00:06:19.459 testimony that I heard. And I have a feeling 00:06:19.459 --> 00:06:23.180 that that's not going to be an unusual kind of 00:06:23.180 --> 00:06:26.060 opinion as we look at some of these proposals. 00:06:26.259 --> 00:06:28.060 And you've got a couple that are right front 00:06:28.060 --> 00:06:31.939 and center around law enforcement and human services. 00:06:32.040 --> 00:06:33.759 Yeah, I would say right out of the gate. So, 00:06:33.819 --> 00:06:35.959 yeah, I mean, I agree with you. I'm not surprised. 00:06:35.980 --> 00:06:39.819 We're sort of seeing this battle of, kind of 00:06:39.819 --> 00:06:41.699 right in front of us, right? Between, you know, 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:45.480 what it means to be a decentralized country in 00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:48.120 terms of states and the federal government. I 00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:50.439 do think, you know, interestingly in this, I 00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:53.300 mean, in the human services and kind of behavioral 00:06:53.300 --> 00:06:55.199 health space, right? A lot of that started with 00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:57.639 the big, beautiful bill, right? HR1. And so we 00:06:57.639 --> 00:06:59.980 started seeing a lot of consternation building 00:06:59.980 --> 00:07:01.680 in terms of what's the impact going to be in 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:03.279 that environment. And just in case you've been 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:05.920 living under a rock somewhere, the big, beautiful 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:08.459 bill was the first bill of the... Trump administration 00:07:08.459 --> 00:07:11.660 on the federal level, not a state bill. And did 00:07:11.660 --> 00:07:14.199 a lot of sweeping things, particularly in the 00:07:14.199 --> 00:07:17.379 human services and Medicaid space, right? And 00:07:17.379 --> 00:07:20.829 so as counties are... you know, all over the 00:07:20.829 --> 00:07:23.009 map in that space doing a variety of services. 00:07:23.370 --> 00:07:26.009 There was a lot of angst and concern around sort 00:07:26.009 --> 00:07:27.610 of what's the impact going to be? How are we 00:07:27.610 --> 00:07:29.430 going to look? And it was such a slow rollout 00:07:29.430 --> 00:07:31.310 and there was legal, you know, challenges going 00:07:31.310 --> 00:07:33.389 on. And so we're still, I think, trying to assess 00:07:33.389 --> 00:07:34.529 what the impacts are. And it was impacts on food 00:07:34.529 --> 00:07:37.689 benefits? It runs the gamut, yeah. Impacts on 00:07:37.689 --> 00:07:41.290 Medicare? Yep. Eligibility, I think, really is 00:07:41.290 --> 00:07:43.329 what it boiled down to kind of being the biggest 00:07:43.329 --> 00:07:45.470 concern. And so then you look at that and go, 00:07:45.550 --> 00:07:47.589 okay, well, eligibility, what's the impact of 00:07:47.589 --> 00:07:49.899 if we reduce the number? of eligibles. What does 00:07:49.899 --> 00:07:51.459 that mean? Well, it means that those folks have 00:07:51.459 --> 00:07:54.540 to look elsewhere for services. Oftentimes that's 00:07:54.540 --> 00:07:56.560 where, boom, you've got the counties because 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:00.019 we operate so much of that. those social services. 00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:01.920 Yeah. We're there close to government. Exactly. 00:08:02.060 --> 00:08:04.339 We've got the public health departments, right. 00:08:04.540 --> 00:08:07.379 We, you know, are, they're not our emergency 00:08:07.379 --> 00:08:09.439 rooms, but community emergency rooms. They're 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:11.579 part of our system. Right. Right. Part of the 00:08:11.579 --> 00:08:13.480 system. Right. And so, yeah, so we find ourselves 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:16.660 sort of squarely, you know, I think impacted 00:08:16.660 --> 00:08:19.620 by what those, what those decisions may or may 00:08:19.620 --> 00:08:21.100 not be as we continue to see the rollout. So 00:08:21.100 --> 00:08:23.180 if we stay on that service vein and we stay on 00:08:23.180 --> 00:08:25.839 kind of that health services vein, as far as 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:28.220 like Medicare, Medicaid, are there proposals? 00:08:28.300 --> 00:08:30.439 Let's let the legislature to do something about 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:33.179 that. And by do something about it, I mean kind 00:08:33.179 --> 00:08:36.200 of backfill the cuts or the people who will be 00:08:36.200 --> 00:08:38.580 uneligible provide funding for those people to 00:08:38.580 --> 00:08:40.500 get services here at the state level. Yeah. I 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:42.639 mean, so the answer, unfortunately, is kind of 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:45.000 a yes and no. Right. I mean, I think the governor's 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:47.519 office really tried to spend a lot of time during 00:08:47.519 --> 00:08:50.659 interim actively trying to figure out what the 00:08:50.659 --> 00:08:52.980 backup plan was. Right. How do how do we deal 00:08:52.980 --> 00:08:56.080 with this? What I mean. I think what complicates 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:57.519 this is what we started talking about earlier, 00:08:57.620 --> 00:08:59.940 which is we're in a bad budget environment. And 00:08:59.940 --> 00:09:03.500 so there aren't funds that are just sitting around 00:09:03.500 --> 00:09:05.360 that we can just go, or at least that the state 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:07.039 can go, oh, okay, we can just plug this hole 00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:09.019 over here and plug this hole over here and beef 00:09:09.019 --> 00:09:11.919 up this program over here. And so it really is 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:14.659 an unfortunate series of timing, I think, timing 00:09:14.659 --> 00:09:17.940 events that have really stressed, I think, the 00:09:17.940 --> 00:09:19.580 state in terms of trying to figure out what to 00:09:19.580 --> 00:09:22.340 do. There is definitely going to be impact. There's 00:09:22.340 --> 00:09:24.940 definitely going to be, I think, I think the 00:09:24.940 --> 00:09:27.919 governor's office tried to move money around 00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:31.240 and shore up and find dollars that it could use 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:34.649 to potentially. plug some of those holes and 00:09:34.649 --> 00:09:36.330 some of those gaps that they anticipate happening. 00:09:36.470 --> 00:09:38.250 But the problem is we haven't seen that happen 00:09:38.250 --> 00:09:40.129 yet. Right. So are we talking mostly a budget 00:09:40.129 --> 00:09:42.169 play then for like, I think it is. I haven't 00:09:42.169 --> 00:09:43.970 seen, I mean, on the policy side, I haven't seen 00:09:43.970 --> 00:09:46.210 a ton so far this session. Okay. It's actually 00:09:46.210 --> 00:09:48.490 kind of quiet on the behavioral health side within 00:09:48.490 --> 00:09:49.929 the legislature. I mean, there's definitely, 00:09:49.970 --> 00:09:51.889 which is a little unusual because it is sessions. 00:09:51.950 --> 00:09:53.669 It's been pretty busy. It is. Right. I mean, 00:09:53.669 --> 00:09:57.610 I agree. And I think partly just honestly. so 00:09:57.610 --> 00:09:59.070 much of behavioral health is driven by money 00:09:59.070 --> 00:10:01.730 that there's no money. And so there really is, 00:10:01.769 --> 00:10:03.610 I think a moment of pause happening a little 00:10:03.610 --> 00:10:05.909 bit like, okay, there's things we want to do, 00:10:06.029 --> 00:10:08.830 but. You know, we can't quite get to it right 00:10:08.830 --> 00:10:11.309 now. Well, that's interesting. You know, Brad, 00:10:11.370 --> 00:10:14.710 if we stick to the headlines and this idea of 00:10:14.710 --> 00:10:16.269 friction between, say, the state and federal 00:10:16.269 --> 00:10:18.250 government, you know, we talked about Medicare, 00:10:18.350 --> 00:10:20.289 Medicaid kind of snap, food benefits, that sort 00:10:20.289 --> 00:10:22.490 of thing on the human services side. The other 00:10:22.490 --> 00:10:25.049 big one. Public safety. Yeah, it's the public 00:10:25.049 --> 00:10:27.730 safety side. And it's those, you know, the clashes 00:10:27.730 --> 00:10:30.950 between immigration and customs enforcement or 00:10:30.950 --> 00:10:34.250 what people call ICE and what we're seeing in 00:10:34.250 --> 00:10:36.960 communities as far as, you know, quote, I'm using 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:40.080 air quotes, ICE raids. A lot of people don't 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:41.879 necessarily characterize them that way, and I'm 00:10:41.879 --> 00:10:45.000 not trying to be political at all about the Immigration 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:47.220 and Customs Enforcement Agency. I'm just saying 00:10:47.220 --> 00:10:50.399 the reality is it's been controversial. It's 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:53.039 been in the news a lot. There's been some aggressive 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:55.919 enforcement, admittedly by the Trump administration, 00:10:56.039 --> 00:11:03.759 as one of their signature political... And Washington 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:06.899 state is, you know, as a state, our governor 00:11:06.899 --> 00:11:10.080 and our state legislature, the majority party, 00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:13.480 they're fighting against it. Right. I don't think 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:16.600 you can understand. I mean, you know, I don't 00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:20.009 think you can overstate how. You know, it's permeating 00:11:20.009 --> 00:11:21.669 everything in the public safety space. Right. 00:11:21.710 --> 00:11:24.070 I mean, it is everywhere. It is all over social 00:11:24.070 --> 00:11:26.230 media. It's all over the news programs. And it's 00:11:26.230 --> 00:11:28.929 every day at the national level, at the local 00:11:28.929 --> 00:11:30.669 level, at the state level. I mean, it's just 00:11:30.669 --> 00:11:33.889 everywhere. And so, yeah, I mean, I don't I you 00:11:33.889 --> 00:11:36.149 know, I think we should have expected that some 00:11:36.149 --> 00:11:38.110 of that was going to spill over into this session. 00:11:38.169 --> 00:11:39.809 Right. That the legislature was going to want 00:11:39.809 --> 00:11:43.129 to take positions and do some posturing. And 00:11:43.129 --> 00:11:44.909 and again, I don't mean that negatively, but 00:11:44.909 --> 00:11:47.389 just sort of making some statements about how 00:11:47.389 --> 00:11:50.580 they feel. They want to be perceived as a legislature, 00:11:50.659 --> 00:11:53.200 how Washington State wants to be perceived in 00:11:53.200 --> 00:11:55.159 this broader context and discussion that's going 00:11:55.159 --> 00:11:57.879 on. And, yeah, I mean, and I think, you know. 00:11:58.539 --> 00:12:00.879 If I were a betting guy, I'd say they're going 00:12:00.879 --> 00:12:02.399 to pass a bill or two. I think they're going 00:12:02.399 --> 00:12:04.460 to pass a lot of bills. On this issue. I think 00:12:04.460 --> 00:12:06.059 they're going to pass a lot of bills. And I think 00:12:06.059 --> 00:12:08.360 the challenge for us has been, and we kind of 00:12:08.360 --> 00:12:10.340 started talking about stuff coming out of left 00:12:10.340 --> 00:12:13.820 field, right? I mean, I think, or right down 00:12:13.820 --> 00:12:16.240 the heart of the plate. Right down the heart 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:19.679 of the plate, right. These are clear issues that 00:12:19.679 --> 00:12:24.600 are not they are making clear what they're trying 00:12:24.600 --> 00:12:26.419 to do here. And I don't think anybody has any 00:12:26.419 --> 00:12:29.379 ambiguity about what the goal is. Right. At least 00:12:29.379 --> 00:12:31.259 from the way some of these bills are drafted. 00:12:31.320 --> 00:12:33.279 Right. And so I think it's really putting us 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:35.299 as a county association in an interesting position 00:12:35.299 --> 00:12:38.100 to have to kind of walk the fine line between, 00:12:38.179 --> 00:12:41.389 I think. you know responsibly not trying to be 00:12:41.389 --> 00:12:44.149 overly political right um looking and trying 00:12:44.149 --> 00:12:46.549 to look at policies from a dispassionate standpoint 00:12:46.549 --> 00:12:48.950 because our members do have strong feelings they 00:12:48.950 --> 00:12:50.850 do they are elected officials yeah absolutely 00:12:50.850 --> 00:12:53.289 and i know that individually they're probably 00:12:53.289 --> 00:12:55.509 going to weigh in and as they should but as an 00:12:55.509 --> 00:12:58.309 association it's you know you know i've talked 00:12:58.309 --> 00:13:00.470 about this a lot we could get 20 members in the 00:13:00.470 --> 00:13:02.500 room we're not going to get a majority opinion. 00:13:02.740 --> 00:13:04.519 On a number of things. Right, on this stuff. 00:13:04.700 --> 00:13:08.500 And so, you know, we're trying to, what you're 00:13:08.500 --> 00:13:10.340 trying to do is kind of navigate in where the 00:13:10.340 --> 00:13:13.220 county interests are. Exactly. Perhaps, and try 00:13:13.220 --> 00:13:15.279 to make sure that our voice is heard in that 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:18.029 regard without getting... too embroiled in kind 00:13:18.029 --> 00:13:20.429 of the passion and the emotion of the politics 00:13:20.429 --> 00:13:22.309 surrounding the issue otherwise. I think that's 00:13:22.309 --> 00:13:23.610 exactly right. I mean, I think what we're trying 00:13:23.610 --> 00:13:25.970 to do as an association is be nuanced and sophisticated, 00:13:26.250 --> 00:13:28.730 right? To say, okay, there's going to be a place 00:13:28.730 --> 00:13:30.490 for a debate that's got to happen at the state 00:13:30.490 --> 00:13:33.289 level, right? And the counties need to be engaged 00:13:33.289 --> 00:13:36.429 in that. Yeah. We have to figure out where. And 00:13:36.429 --> 00:13:38.629 how we engage, what part of the conversation 00:13:38.629 --> 00:13:41.350 is appropriate for us as an association to weigh 00:13:41.350 --> 00:13:43.509 in on, and what part do we leave to our individual 00:13:43.509 --> 00:13:46.250 members to engage as part of their normal political 00:13:46.250 --> 00:13:48.309 process for the jobs that they have. Is there 00:13:48.309 --> 00:13:51.870 a proposal or two that you're especially working 00:13:51.870 --> 00:13:54.629 on or maybe keep you up at night a little bit? 00:13:54.769 --> 00:13:57.129 Yeah, I mean, you know, there's definitely been 00:13:57.129 --> 00:14:00.669 some, there's definitely been a lot of conversation 00:14:00.669 --> 00:14:04.350 around. Well, I guess we could look at it a couple 00:14:04.350 --> 00:14:06.950 ways. If we want to stay in the vein of what's 00:14:06.950 --> 00:14:09.490 happening, kind of federal impact and state trying 00:14:09.490 --> 00:14:13.230 to respond, I definitely think we're seeing a 00:14:13.230 --> 00:14:17.330 lot of effort being put into protecting people's 00:14:17.330 --> 00:14:21.330 personal information, people's data, and placing 00:14:21.330 --> 00:14:23.669 new requirements on county officials in terms 00:14:23.669 --> 00:14:27.200 of, or county staff. In terms of how they interact 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:28.539 with the federal government, right, when the 00:14:28.539 --> 00:14:30.240 federal government or when federal agencies are 00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:32.259 in town. Right. So, in fact, there's a bill you 00:14:32.259 --> 00:14:35.740 and I had worked on just this week talking about 00:14:35.740 --> 00:14:39.019 emergency management scenarios. Right. This was 00:14:39.019 --> 00:14:42.700 a bill that basically allows local governments 00:14:42.700 --> 00:14:45.899 and the governor, I think, to. create these emergency 00:14:45.899 --> 00:14:47.820 operations zones, right? That's right. House 00:14:47.820 --> 00:14:50.340 Bill 2351, I think, if I recall. Is that the 00:14:50.340 --> 00:14:52.500 number? Yep. And we just had a meeting about 00:14:52.500 --> 00:14:54.419 it yesterday, as a matter of fact. And the idea 00:14:54.419 --> 00:14:58.299 being that within those zones, if you're an emergency 00:14:58.299 --> 00:15:04.139 responder and a law enforcement officer is trying 00:15:04.139 --> 00:15:06.539 to enforce... against an emergency responder 00:15:06.539 --> 00:15:09.340 there is new protocol that's exactly right rather 00:15:09.340 --> 00:15:11.320 than them just being able to come in and disrupt 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:14.000 what's happening as far as the emergency operations 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:17.059 go there is new protocol there are there are 00:15:17.059 --> 00:15:19.220 systems that are going to be put in place that 00:15:19.220 --> 00:15:20.500 they must follow if they're going to actually 00:15:20.500 --> 00:15:22.480 do that exactly and i think what's fascinating 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:24.559 about this to some on some level is i don't know 00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:26.340 a couple years ago if anyone would have envisioned 00:15:26.340 --> 00:15:28.100 these type of conversations right but wasn't 00:15:28.100 --> 00:15:30.240 there an incident at the bear gulch fire or something 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:31.820 that's exactly i do think that's that's where 00:15:31.820 --> 00:15:34.990 this is coming from yeah for sure but but it 00:15:34.990 --> 00:15:37.570 all feels a little bit new territory, right? 00:15:37.649 --> 00:15:39.909 Like we're all kind of engaging in scenarios 00:15:39.909 --> 00:15:41.850 that, you know, and I think in some of these 00:15:41.850 --> 00:15:45.009 bills, right, they're... They're looking or they're 00:15:45.009 --> 00:15:47.710 almost anticipatory bills, right? Like, well, 00:15:47.830 --> 00:15:50.370 a scenario could happen. Right. And if it does 00:15:50.370 --> 00:15:52.889 happen, we want this policy in place when it 00:15:52.889 --> 00:15:54.950 does. Right. Even though it may never. Right. 00:15:55.370 --> 00:15:57.470 And we already have really important policies 00:15:57.470 --> 00:15:59.909 in Washington that, you know, whether you like 00:15:59.909 --> 00:16:02.549 them or not, they're there and they can be controversial 00:16:02.549 --> 00:16:04.730 ones to keep Washington working. That's right. 00:16:04.730 --> 00:16:06.710 Right. And the one that we're talking about right 00:16:06.710 --> 00:16:09.570 now, what was the bill number again? 2351. House 00:16:09.570 --> 00:16:12.789 Bill 2351. That one actually parallels a lot. 00:16:12.779 --> 00:16:15.220 It does. The Washington, Keep Washington Working 00:16:15.220 --> 00:16:16.740 Act. Keep Washington Working is definitely woven 00:16:16.740 --> 00:16:19.779 into these. Yeah, but it just deals with, okay, 00:16:19.860 --> 00:16:21.799 these are emergency responders and it's a little 00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:23.940 bit different scenario. That's right. And we're 00:16:23.940 --> 00:16:27.500 seeing, you know, we see a similar focus on law 00:16:27.500 --> 00:16:30.539 enforcement, right? I mean. Just law enforcement 00:16:30.539 --> 00:16:33.320 in general? Well, I mean, in terms of how law 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:35.480 enforcement is interacting not only with the 00:16:35.480 --> 00:16:38.559 community, but interacting potentially with federal 00:16:38.559 --> 00:16:40.500 agents if they are to come into the state and 00:16:40.500 --> 00:16:43.799 are. performing actions, right? And so I think 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:48.980 there's this sort of renewed interest in, I mean, 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:50.580 if you recall last session, right, we had a really, 00:16:50.659 --> 00:16:53.039 I think, sort of public safety forward session 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:56.500 in terms of wanting to support law enforcement. 00:16:56.679 --> 00:16:58.840 Certainly that was a key component of Governor 00:16:58.840 --> 00:17:00.899 Ferguson's first ask. Yeah, he said it right 00:17:00.899 --> 00:17:03.840 in his first speech. He said, I want $100 million. 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:07.339 And he got his $100 million. And I want it specifically 00:17:07.339 --> 00:17:09.140 to hire more cops. That's right. That's right. 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:13.539 And so I feel like we've kind of done that, and 00:17:13.539 --> 00:17:15.680 now we're maybe swinging back the other way a 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:17.740 little bit in terms of, well, what are we doing 00:17:17.740 --> 00:17:21.000 to make sure we're controlling the power and 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:23.900 authority that these individuals have and keeping 00:17:23.900 --> 00:17:26.839 them accountable to not only themselves and the 00:17:26.839 --> 00:17:28.720 systems that they work within, but to the public 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:31.279 that they serve. And I do think there's friction. 00:17:32.359 --> 00:17:34.079 There's certainly friction at the state and federal 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:36.339 level, but I do think there's now friction between 00:17:36.339 --> 00:17:38.279 the state and local level as well in terms of 00:17:38.279 --> 00:17:41.039 the best way to do that. And so I think it's 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:43.140 going to take a lot of hard – we're going to 00:17:43.140 --> 00:17:44.460 have a lot of hard conversations. There's already 00:17:44.460 --> 00:17:47.519 been some spicy testimony this week in a number 00:17:47.519 --> 00:17:49.220 of committees around a lot of these issues because 00:17:49.220 --> 00:17:52.960 they bring out a lot of passion and personal 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:58.089 interest. And it's been really hot. hotly contested 00:17:58.089 --> 00:18:00.190 testimony. I don't know if that's the right word, 00:18:00.269 --> 00:18:03.430 but really passionate, very aggressive testimony. 00:18:03.470 --> 00:18:06.569 Spicy. I like spicy. It's spicy, right? It's 00:18:06.569 --> 00:18:10.849 spicy. Yeah. And it's not just been from people 00:18:10.849 --> 00:18:13.609 coming to testify. It's been between members. 00:18:13.750 --> 00:18:16.009 Exactly. As well. I mean, there's been some really 00:18:16.009 --> 00:18:18.009 pointed questions. There's been some pretty. 00:18:18.869 --> 00:18:22.569 Adamant statements. Some surprising, actually. 00:18:22.609 --> 00:18:25.529 People really digging in and getting vocal on 00:18:25.529 --> 00:18:28.589 stuff. Well, as we kind of wind this up a little 00:18:28.589 --> 00:18:30.450 bit, Brad, we've got a few more minutes. Are 00:18:30.450 --> 00:18:32.750 there any other – you kind of mentioned the one 00:18:32.750 --> 00:18:34.730 bill. Any others you want to mention before we 00:18:34.730 --> 00:18:36.970 get out of here? You know, there's a few things. 00:18:37.170 --> 00:18:40.150 Maybe it might be worth mentioning the issues 00:18:40.150 --> 00:18:43.789 around the toxicology lab, the state toxicology 00:18:43.789 --> 00:18:46.470 lab. This is something that's come up a few times 00:18:46.470 --> 00:18:49.390 during session. the state uh washington state 00:18:49.390 --> 00:18:52.309 patrol runs a statewide lab that counties all 00:18:52.309 --> 00:18:55.329 use counties and cities frankly all use uh to 00:18:55.329 --> 00:18:59.809 process all of their um physical evidence right 00:18:59.809 --> 00:19:02.289 that they may so In the case of – if we do a 00:19:02.289 --> 00:19:05.150 simple example, obviously DNA is in there, everything 00:19:05.150 --> 00:19:07.789 else. But for example – Blood tests. Blood tests, 00:19:08.029 --> 00:19:11.589 breath, any of these kind of things, so DUI cases, 00:19:11.690 --> 00:19:13.609 et cetera, et cetera. These all have to go to 00:19:13.609 --> 00:19:17.309 the tox lab for – and we have a really excellent 00:19:17.309 --> 00:19:18.970 tox lab in Washington State. That's one thing 00:19:18.970 --> 00:19:21.069 we're actually known for nationally is having 00:19:21.069 --> 00:19:23.170 a really excellent set of individuals that do 00:19:23.170 --> 00:19:25.410 this work. The problem is it's not big enough, 00:19:25.549 --> 00:19:28.970 and we're seeing a tremendous backlog in getting 00:19:28.970 --> 00:19:32.569 these cases. adjudicated. And the result is we're 00:19:32.569 --> 00:19:34.410 seeing some cases, and it's happening a lot in 00:19:34.410 --> 00:19:36.549 the DUI space, where they're running up against 00:19:36.549 --> 00:19:39.970 their statute of limitations and ultimately being 00:19:39.970 --> 00:19:41.630 dismissed. So they're not even getting their 00:19:41.630 --> 00:19:46.569 toxicology processed in time. Their prosecutors 00:19:46.569 --> 00:19:49.710 are having to dismiss the cases or request that 00:19:49.710 --> 00:19:51.910 they be dismissed because they can't get the 00:19:51.910 --> 00:19:53.049 evidence in time. Well, that's a huge problem. 00:19:53.190 --> 00:19:55.430 It's a huge problem. And so this bill tries to 00:19:55.430 --> 00:20:00.529 give an option to counties to try to pay for 00:20:00.529 --> 00:20:02.809 some of this themselves in some outside labs, 00:20:02.970 --> 00:20:05.890 using outside independent labs. That creates 00:20:05.890 --> 00:20:08.130 a whole hornet's nest of a problem on its own 00:20:08.130 --> 00:20:11.049 on some level. But really, I think the concern 00:20:11.049 --> 00:20:14.470 from our end is it's a shift, right? There's 00:20:14.470 --> 00:20:17.069 a shift of funding responsibility over to the 00:20:17.069 --> 00:20:18.890 county. Well, yeah, I mean, if we're, quote, 00:20:18.890 --> 00:20:22.430 unquote, given the opportunity to use an outside 00:20:22.430 --> 00:20:25.430 lab, where's the incentive for the state? To 00:20:25.430 --> 00:20:28.849 continue to fund the tax law. Yeah, right. Exactly. 00:20:29.109 --> 00:20:31.210 And I also think on it. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. 00:20:31.269 --> 00:20:33.609 Well, and just the political problem associated 00:20:33.609 --> 00:20:36.670 with, you know, which ones do you choose to send 00:20:36.670 --> 00:20:38.750 versus which ones do you not choose to send? 00:20:38.869 --> 00:20:41.049 I mean, it becomes an access to justice issue 00:20:41.049 --> 00:20:43.910 or a speedy trial issue. I've been using the 00:20:43.910 --> 00:20:48.660 term. It's a it's a. Yeah, and that would be 00:20:48.660 --> 00:21:16.529 a disaster. gets us where we want to go in the 00:21:16.529 --> 00:21:19.170 long run on this. So that's definitely one we'll 00:21:19.170 --> 00:21:22.049 be watching, engaging on. It has some both policy 00:21:22.049 --> 00:21:23.730 and fiscal implications, I think, for counties 00:21:23.730 --> 00:21:26.250 that are pretty serious. Yeah, I feel like we 00:21:26.250 --> 00:21:28.089 could talk about that one for the next 25 minutes. 00:21:28.170 --> 00:21:30.730 We probably could. Yeah. And I think we will 00:21:30.730 --> 00:21:33.029 be probably in future podcasts as it continues 00:21:33.029 --> 00:21:34.910 to go through the process. But yeah, there's 00:21:34.910 --> 00:21:36.829 a lot of work going around for the attorney general 00:21:36.829 --> 00:21:39.950 office as well. A lot of kind of adjusting and 00:21:39.950 --> 00:21:42.150 revisiting kind of the powers of the AG's office. 00:21:42.230 --> 00:21:43.710 That'll be bills that we continue to sort of 00:21:43.710 --> 00:21:45.890 engage on and look. They're very complicated 00:21:45.890 --> 00:21:48.769 and long because they're steeped in legal ease. 00:21:49.170 --> 00:21:52.210 I think the attorneys just like bills like that. 00:21:52.250 --> 00:21:54.869 They do. Really complicated and long. They really 00:21:54.869 --> 00:21:58.210 do. And they try to test us. You're going to 00:21:58.210 --> 00:21:59.789 read this 75 -page bill? That's right. Are you 00:21:59.789 --> 00:22:00.730 going to read the whole thing? Or what are you 00:22:00.730 --> 00:22:02.609 going to do here? I get paid by the page. Exactly. 00:22:03.150 --> 00:22:05.569 Well, Brad, thanks for the time. Thanks for dropping 00:22:05.569 --> 00:22:07.670 in. My pleasure. It's good to see you. I'm sorry 00:22:07.670 --> 00:22:10.089 that you didn't listen to any of the podcasts 00:22:10.089 --> 00:22:12.309 from the summer. So you're going to have some 00:22:12.309 --> 00:22:15.240 homework. Clearly, as soon as that came out of 00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:16.940 my mouth, I knew I was going to be like, okay. 00:22:16.940 --> 00:22:18.079 I'm going to quiz you. I'm going to say, okay. 00:22:18.460 --> 00:22:20.119 I'm going to go rack these up. The September 00:22:20.119 --> 00:22:24.500 podcast about this. Who was it with? I'm going 00:22:24.500 --> 00:22:27.539 to have a whole host of questions. And I might 00:22:27.539 --> 00:22:29.380 have some prizes for you if you get it right. 00:22:29.380 --> 00:22:31.319 Well, see, now you're talking my language here 00:22:31.319 --> 00:22:34.319 a little bit. I'm motivated by prizes. All right, 00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:35.960 buddy. Good to see you. Likewise, Paul. Thanks 00:22:35.960 --> 00:22:37.220 for everything. Yep. We'll see you soon. Take 00:22:37.220 --> 00:22:41.769 care. Thanks for tuning in to County Connection. 00:22:41.809 --> 00:22:44.009 Stay in the loop by subscribing to us through 00:22:44.009 --> 00:22:46.289 your preferred podcasting app and following us 00:22:46.289 --> 00:22:49.289 on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. And don't 00:22:49.289 --> 00:22:51.250 forget to join the hub, your go to source for 00:22:51.250 --> 00:22:53.009 the latest news and updates from the Washington 00:22:53.009 --> 00:22:55.670 State Association of Counties. 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